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Monday, May 21, 2012

You can apply this update to AutoCAD 2012 running on all supported operating systems and languages. Consult the readme file for installation instructions and be sure to install the correct update (32-bit or 64-bit) for your software and operating system.

NOTE: You can also use Autodesk Exchange to install the Live Update Maintenance Patches, which will automatically show the correct Service Pack for your product.

The AutoCAD 2012 and AutoCAD LT 2012 Service Pack 2 Readme has not yet been updated to include what updates and bug fixes SP2 includes. UPDATE: See details further down.

Another way is to run the ABOUT command and it will say Product Version: F.205.0.0, AutoCAD 2012 – English SP2.

As a result of detailed information from customers who used the Customer Error Reporting Utility, a number of problems were identified and fixed. Updates have been made in the following commands and features:

2D Display

General Editing

Model Documentation

Open/Save

Startup

The following defects have been fixed:

3D Navigation Tools

AutoCAD may become unstable after switching between a 3D Viewport to a 2D Viewport.

It’s good practice to specify the port for the vendor daemon in the license file. Specifying a port for each vendor if multiple vendors exists on the license server will help to avoid conflicts if the license server is restarted. To keep the port fixed helps if you want to report on it using lmutil.exe or the license report solution JTB FlexReport.

If you have a firewall between the license server(s) and the client computers, you need to open some TCP/IP ports on the server for license-related communication. Open port 2080 for adskflex, and open ports 27000 through 27009 for lmgrd. If these port addresses are restricted by a router or firewall software, users on the remote side of the router will not have access to licenses controlled by the Network License Manager. The Autodesk Network License Manager needs unrestricted access to the two TCP ports used. Ping Firewall rule called "File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv4-In)" might need to be enabled.

When you set up clients to find network licenses it is good practice to include the port otherwise all ports between 27000 and 27009 will be tested until the license server is found and if you have many license servers this can take some time.

Bad example: ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE=@server1; @server2

Good example: ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE=27000@server1;27000@server2

FlexNet debug log can be used to find out what the License Manager and vendor daemon ports being used are.

According to Autodesk’s TS67745: “Note: Specifying a port outside of the 27000-27009 range should be avoided unless the vendor specifies that a particular port outside of the range should be used instead.”

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

OsnapzBG is a background color changer app that now also supports AutoCAD 2013 and is now also available as AutoCAD app on Autodesk Exchange Apps site making installation easy and having it show up on the Ribbon Plug-ins tab. This also gives quick access to easily set OSNAPZ on or off.

OSNAPZ set to 1 (on) makes anything you snap to only use the current elevation as z value. OSNAPZ controls whether object snaps are automatically projected onto a plane parallel to the XY plane of the current UCS at the current elevation.

Monday, May 14, 2012

FlexNet License Server Manager version 11.9.1 and others earlier have a bug in lmgrd that can cause a stack overflow.

“The server is affected by a classical stack buffer-overflow in the function that copies the data received after the header in a buffer smaller than the needeed bytes. … lmadmin is not affected.” Ref. lmgrd advisory that was made public 13 May 2012 by Luigi Auriemma but found already back in 26 Oct 2010.

Recommendation is to make sure to use the latest lmgrd.exe that comes with FlexNet Version 11.10.1 or at least a version newer than 11.9.1.

The LAYERSTATESAVE command was added to AutoCAD 2010 but has since then been an undocumented AutoCAD command. Use it to quickly save a new layer state or replace an existing layer state. Here is what the online help says and also if you click on help in the dialog box, but no mention of the actual command name.

New Layer State to Save Dialog Box

Specifies a name and a description for the layer state defined in the Layer States Manager.

The following options are displayed.

New Layer State Name: Specifies a name for the new layer state to be saved.

Description: (Optional) Provides a description of the layer state that is displayed in the Layer States Manager.

This New Layer State to Save dialog is also available in the Layer Walk feature. Just click the "Save Layer State…" option in the right-click context menu.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Autodesk’s DWG Viewer freeware DWG TrueView 2013 is built on the same viewing engine as AutoCAD 2013 and enables you to open and view DWG and DXF files, just as you would in AutoCAD.

DWG TrueView supports side by side with other Autodesk products. However, TrueView does not support side by side install with other versions of TrueView. As with the System Requirements for AutoCAD 2013 Windows Vista is not a supported operating system but you probably will have no problem running TrueView on it.

Open and view DWG and DXF files

Support for visual styles and views in both 2D and 3D

Support for layers

Obtain geometric information from drawings such as distance, mass, and volume

Plot DWG files to a plotter

Create DWF, DWFx, PDF, JPG, and PNG files from DWG files

Publish sets of drawings or sheets to a plotter, or DWF, DWFx, and PDF files

Convert DWG files forward and backward with versions as early as AutoCAD Release 14

When you want to download visit DWG TrueView click on Download DWG TrueView and on Download Now.

Or you might see this message.

If you don’t want to install the Akamai NetSession Interface download manager there seems to be no alternative. Reason to not install Akamai is that their program (C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\Akamai\netsession_win.exe) will keep running all the time on your machine and take up resources.

Similar tip to avoid Akamai works with download of the trial for the full version of AutoCAD 2013.

To install DWG TrueView 2013 you must first install Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 Update 1 on your system. Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Update 1 (available from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/net/Download.aspx) Make sure to select one of the downloads that are for server and development as it is not enough with only the Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 Client Profile, you need the full version. When you check what programs you have installed you must be able to locate Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 Extended. Strange thing though is that full AutoCAD 2013 does not require the Full .NET Framework.

Now you’re ready to install.

If you don’t have Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 Extended installed you will after some minutes get this error message: “.NET 4.0 is not installed. DWG TrueView 2013 cannot be installed without this component. See your system administrator for more information.”

Here is what DWG TrueView 2013 look like when installed and having a drawing opened.

Ribbon with Files, Output, Navigation, View

Layers and Measure

Object Snap and User Interface

DWG Convert

Access to basic Options like Files

Display

and Plot and Publish

Known Issues and Limitations

The following are known issues with this release:

Platform

Installing the 32-bit version of DWG TrueView 2013 on a 64-bit platform is not supported.

DWG Convert EXE's and ZIP's Fail

When you use DWG Convert to create an EXE or ZIP file, the file is not created. This usually occurs if you are using multiple languages. The names of the files generated by AutoCAD-based products use Unicode standards and can be shared internationally. However, WinZip and EXE use a technology that is currently not Unicode-compliant.

ZIP files with non-ASCII characters cannot be exchanged and unzipped between systems with different code pages. That should not prevent using accented or Asian characters that match or are included on the current code page (German characters on English or German operating systems should work. Japanese characters on Japanese operating systems - or where the code page is set to Japanese - should also work).

Opening Damaged Drawings

When opening a damaged drawing, a dialog box appears asking the user to fix the file with the Recover command. This command is not implemented in TrueView. Instead, use the Check and fix errors option as follows:

Click the DWG Convert button.

Select the damaged file.

Click Conversion Setups.

Select "Standard" and click New.

Name the new setup (for example, Recover).

In the Modify Conversion Setup dialog box, set the Conversion packaged type to Folder (set of files). Note Do not select In-place (overwrite files) as this may result in conversion errors.

In the Action area, select Check and fix errors, and click OK.

With this new conversion setup, you will be able to recover your drawings.

Speaking of Autodesk there are also price changes: Upgrade now to help protect your software investment, and help maximize your return with the many benefits offered through Autodesk® Subscription and Autodesk® 360 cloud-based services. Autodesk currently anticipates changes to its upgrade options next year, so take advantage of existing upgrade pricing and paths today to move to the current release—and you could additionally save up to 20%* off SRP when you act before July 13, 2012. If you have Autodesk 2007 products or older they cannot next year be upgraded but you need to purchase a complete new license at full price.

Below is the support offerings can be found:

Autodesk Enterprise Priority Support

What is it?

Autodesk® Enterprise Priority Support is only available to Autodesk Subscription customers. It is a comprehensive program of proactive support services designed to meet the needs of direct, large enterprise customers who use Autodesk software on complex multisite projects. Enterprise Priority Support is the highest level of support that Autodesk offers.

Autodesk Enterprise Priority Support is available for purchase only if you have an Autodesk Subscription and is only available direct from Autodesk.

The short of Advanced Support

Unlimited, priority, one-to-one, extended hour global phone support in English

Phone support in a number of local languages during local business hours

Access to senior Autodesk support specialists

One named contact per ten software seats (minimum of two contacts)

Remote desktop assistance

Access to online, moderated community support forums

Option to escalate forum question to a one-to-one support request

Access to automated email updates and response options for incidents

Access to a wide range of online help and exclusive training webcasts

Access to API support

The short of Basic Support

Access to expedited community forum support. Forum posts are automatically escalated to the Autodesk product support team if the community does not respond to the question within 24 hours. If you do not mark an issue as solved, Autodesk will contact you

Access for authorized persons to one-to-one Autodesk support for issues requiring privacy

Access to Autodesk online support, including a knowledge base with help documents, tutorials, training videos, and an extensive collection of Autodesk technical solutions and community support forum threads

Autodesk Per-Incident Support and Up-and-Ready Support is available without Autodesk Subscription.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

DimNotes has been updated to support AutoCAD 2013 and verticals and is also available as an AutoCAD app so it is easy to install and will show up on the Plug-ins Ribbon tab in both AutoCAD 2013 and AutoCAD 2012.

With DimNotes you can quickly add predefined dimension notes to dimension objects in AutoCAD.

The list with notes is saved to a file and can easily be edited.

The note can be added to different locations, before as prefix, after as suffix, above and below existing dimension text.

TimberTool makes it easy to convert closed polylines into mass elements and makes the bounding box width and depth correct for scheduling purposes. The product was initially created for usage with timber but works with lumber, structural steel or concrete shapes.

This tool overcomes the problem when extruding a mass element using ExtrudeLinework where the bounding box width and depth is not correct.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Here are updated system variables in AutoCAD 2013 and how they have been changed.

Updated system variables

Description

How changed

BINDTYPE

Controls how xref names are handled when binding xrefs or editing xrefs in place.

POINTCLOUDDENSITY

Controls the percentage of points displayed at once for all point clouds in the drawing .

The system variable value is a percentage of the maximum number of points that can exist in a drawing which is defined by POINTCLOUDPOINTMAX, regardless of the number of point clouds attached to a single drawing. Available for viewing drawings w/point clouds in LT.

POINTCLOUDRTDENSITY

Controls the percentage of points displayed during real time zoom, pan, and orbit functions.

Improves performance by degrading the number of points displayed during zooming, panning, or orbiting in real time. Set this system variable to a value less than the value of POINTCLOUDDENSITY in order to improve performance.

SUBOBJSELECTIONMODE

Filters the 3D subobject types that are selected with CTRL+click.

Adds a value (5) that specifies that only components in a drawing view are available for selection.

THUMBSIZE

Controls the maximum size of thumbnail preview which can be stored.

Now accommodates higher resolutions for thumbnail sizes.

XDWGFADECTL

Controls the dimming for all DWG xrefs.

XFADECTL

Controls the fading intensity percentage for references being edited in-place.

Controls the degree of fading when editing a reference in place or when in a view sketching state (editing view-specific geometry).

XREFNOTIFY

Controls the notification for updated or missing xrefs.

Now communicates with the Inventor Server to check for updates to Inventor models placed in Model Documentation views.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

The updated FlexNet (FLEXlm) version (based on Flexera Software’s FlexNet Publisher Licensing Toolkit 11.10.1) was released in February 2012 but first now available for public download as well as the updated License Administration Guide.

Here are the news in 11.10.1:

• Full support for Mac OS X 10.7.x The following features were introduced for trusted-storage-based licensing: • Support for prepped trusted storage • Hybrid license information displayed on lmadmin dashboard • New options keyword (DAEMON_SELECT_TIMEOUT) to support for activations against license servers in bandwidth-restricted environments • New function flxActTransactionGetResponseXML used to retrieve response XML from online activations

lmgrd.exe version is 11.10.1 and lmutil.exe version is 11.10.1 while lmtools.exe is still version 11.10.

I found this addition in the documentation. “Note  For security purposes, best practice is not to use a default port for the license server. Instead, specify a port number outside of the range 27000 through 27009.” Anyone know why? (Other than what is mentioned in this post Potential Security Vulnerability in FlexNet license manager, but should this not be fixed?)

I tested to use the new lmgrd.exe version with my Autodesk network licenses but when starting the service I get this error below and no log file created. Eventually I found that I had used the 32-bit version of lmgrd.exe while it was the 64-bit version that should have been used.

lmgrd is not running: Cannot connect to license server system. The license server manager (lmgrd) has not been started yet, the wrong port@host or license file is being used, or the port or hostname in the license file has been changed. Server name: 192.168.1.1 License path: 27000@SERVER FLEXnet Licensing error:-15,10. System Error: 10061 "WinSock: Connection refused" For further information, refer to the FLEXnet Licensing documentation, available at "www.flexerasoftware.com".

JTB FlexReport license monitoring tool has been tested with and support this new version.

When SSMPropEditor as AutoCAD app (or AutoCAD plug-in)has been used for installation the application will automatically load in AutoCAD and also add the SSMPropEditor panel to the Ribbon tab Plug-ins. In AutoCAD 2013 if a drawing has an associated sheet set it will be opened in SSMPropEditor and if pressing F1 while hovering over the icon on the Ribbon the help file is opened. Commands defined for AutoCAD are SSMPropEditor (starts the application), SSMPropEditorAppShortcuts (will create shortcut to the program in the Windows Start menu or on the desktop) and SSMPropEditorHelp (opens the local help file).